UK GPs lacking in psoriasis training, warns report

A new report by The Patient Association in association with LEO Pharma has highlighted the significant gap between training/support available in primary care and the needs of people living with psoriasis in the UK and Ireland.

Nearly two million people are currently living with psoriasis – a common, serious, lifelong, incurable autoimmune disease – in Great Britain and Ireland. Around 80 percent of patients have chronic plaque psoriasis, which is characterised by thickened, scaly plaques on the surface of the skin causing scaling, itching, stinging, burning and bleeding.

According to the PSO What? report, psoriasis costs the UK economy over £1.07 billion in lost productivity alone, and also represents a significant drag on health services, accounting for 5 percent of GP dermatology consultations in England and Wales.
And yet this workload is not balanced by adequate dermatology education for GPs and there is a chronic shortage of dermatologists, the report notes. GPs have little dermatology training and education and there are only 650 consultants to advise them, and provide more specialist care.